Doc. No. 2. II ment of debts or in the purchase of produce. It could earnestly be desired that every bank, not possessing the means of resumption, should follow the example of the late United States Bank of Pennsylvania, and go into liquidation, rather than, by refusing to do so, to continue embarrassments in the way of solvent institutions, thereby augmenting the difficulties incident to the present condition of things. Whether this Government, with due regard to the rights of the States, has any power to constrain the banks either to resume specie payments, or to force them into liquidation, is an inquiry which will not fail to claim your consideration. In view of the great advantages which are allowed the corporators, not among the least of which is the authority contained in most of their charters to make loans to three times the amount of their capital, thereby often deriving three times as much interest on the same amount of money as any individual is- permitted by law to receive, no sufficient apology can be urged for a long- continued suspension of specie payments. Such suspension is productive of the greatest detriment to the public, by expelling from circulation the precious metals, and seriously hazarding the success of any effort that this Government can make to increase commercial facilities and to advance the public interests. This is the more to be regretted, and the indispensable necessity for a sound currency becomes the more manifest, when we reflect on the vast amount of the internal commerce of the country. Of this we have no statistics, nor just data for forming adequate opinions. But there can be no doubt but that the amount of transportation coastwise by sea, and the transportation inland by railroads and canals, and by steamboats and other modes of conveyance over the surface of our vast rivers and immense lakes, and the value of property carried and interchanged by these means, form a general aggregate, to which the foreign commerce of the country, large as it is, makes but a distant approach. In the absence of any controlling power over this subject, which, by forcing a general resumption of specie payments, would at once have the effect of restoring a sound medium of exchange, and would leave to the country but little to desire, what measure of relief, falling within the limits- of our constitutional competency, does it become this Government to adopt ? It was my painful duty, at your last session, under the weight of most solemn obligations, to differ with Congress on the measures which it proposed for my approval, and which it doubtless regarded as corrective of existing evils. Subsequent reflection, and events since occurring^ have only served to confirm me in the opinions then entertained and frankly expressed. I must be permitted to add, that no scheme of governmental policy ? unaided by individual exertions, can be available for ameliorating the present condition of things. Commercial modes of exchange and a good currency are but the necessary means of commerce and intercourse, not. the direct productive sources of wealth. Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality; and nothing can be more ill-judged than to look to facilities in borrowing, or to. a redundant circulation, for the power of discharging pecuniary obligations.. The country is full of resources, and the people full of energy; and the great and permanent remedy for present embarrassments must be sought in industry, economy, the observance of good faith, and the favorable influence of time.
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